Spanish is spoken in so many countries that seemingly endless varieties of the language exist. As part of our Hispanic Heritage Month series, we’ll take a brief look at Spanish as it is used in Mexico.

First, why exactly is Spanish spoken in Mexico? It all started with the Spanish colonization of the country. As a result of Mexico City’s role in the colonial administration of what was called “New Spain” from 1535 to 1821, the population of the Mexican capital included large numbers of Spanish speakers from Spain.

But Mexico City, under the name of Tenochtitlán, had also been the capital of the Aztec Empire, so many speakers of the Aztec language Nahuatl continued to live there, outnumbering Spanish-speakers for several generations. Consequently, Mexican Spanish evolved into a distinct dialect which included hispanicized Nahuatl words.

The differences between Spanish from Spain and Mexican Spanish are greater than those one finds when comparing American and British English. In addition, different dialects exist within Mexico – for example, the Spanish of the Yucatán Peninsula is different from all other forms, and the Spanish spoken in the areas bordering Guatemala resembles the variation of “Central American Spanish” spoken in that country.

At Language Translation, Inc., we carry out numerous language translation and interpreting jobs in Spanish, and are entirely familiar with the differences in dialects found in this worldwide language. “Let us show you how good translation should be.”

Betty Carlson

The October issue of Language Lines, our monthly newsletter, has just been released. Sign up here for more news about the world of languages.